Interesting article, though I remain convinced that govt and the public learn very little from natural disasters. People will rebuild their waterfront homes again and again because govt. subsidizes the insurance to fund it. Egos cause levees to get built and rebuilt because authorities convince themselves that their levees will never fail. No land is too low to build on you know, Nothing much seems to have been learned from Fukushima as concerns making nuke plants more resilient to natural disaster, if learning is measured by actions taken. How many new swimming pools and golf courses are being built still in California despite being in the midst of an epic drought? And so forth.

Depends on what “the apocalypse” is. Currently, I’m in San Francisco. The weather here is mild enough: cool and foggy through most of the summer, a week of hot weather, before and after the defined summer season, more fog, some rain the rest of the time, winds rarely exceeding 80 mph, with a light dusting of snow, once every couple of decades. The drought won’t hurt SF much, unless the greenies manage to persuade the Board of Stupidvisors to tear down Hetch Hetchy Dam, currently a tough sell during the drought.

Earthquakes are another matter, though a lot of buildings were repaired and upgraded after the Loma Prieta Quake-up Call, Mother Nature can dish out a lot worse, and nobody can afford to build tall buildings that can withstand 10+ on the Richter scale. Still, they happen a lot less frequently than other natural disasters.

My expectation of an apocalypse worthy of the name, is more along the lines of epidemic diseases, combined with economic collapse, for which few cities, most especially, San Francisco, will, or even can be, really well prepared, without virtually uprooting all normal work and business routines. My wife and I are in the process of getting out, to live elsewhere in the nation.

The demos are doing a new take on global climate change. It’s preparing for sudden ocean rise. Over the next 50 years Hanson’s latest study shows supposedly the sea level on the east coast could rise by 8 to 10 feet. We will all be dead by then but I’m sure the billions spent will be a complete success in saving the country in 2065 with coastal fortifications. The boat people from Europe would love to plant a new flag in sanctuary kingdom York of North America.